Update 12: The contrast between Mysore and Hampi

10:15am
Tuesday October 10 2006
Hampi

Hello fellow travellers:

Forward this update to a friend!

Since the last email, I have travelled from Bangalore to Mysore, where I saw the Dasara Festival. After a week I took an overnight bus to Hampi, the famous ruined city of Vijayanagar in north Karnataka. I am here now.

At the beginning a television show I saw recently, Anthony Bourdain upon arriving in Indonesia said: "Now is the part of the program when I summarize an entire country in a few sentences. Instead of doing that...." and he just walked down the street to a food stall and tried the local fare. That made me laugh. Whenever I consider writing something for the ItinerantWitness.com, my mind jumps to try to capture the entire experience. It's the perfect recipe for writer's block.

Every place I have visited has been different from the last, usually in significant ways. Mysore was packed for the Dasara festival, full of Indian tourists. Every night there were many cultural events at different venues, ranging from groups dancing to Bollywood numbers to traditional instrumental performances. In the center of the city near the palace, the streets were full of people trying to sell me something, some taking a direct approach, others trying to draw me into their confidence. It was enough to put me on edge when I left my hotel room and went on the street, keeping my eyes open and anticipating whatever may happen. This happens all the time in India: wherever there are tourists, especially foreign tourists, there are people looking for an in to their wallets.

Hampi, in contrast, is more peaceful. Certainly it is oriented toward tourists - the entire place is a tourist destination - but the edge is gone. Maybe it's because it is the off-season, maybe it's because the vendors here prefer a softer approach. The sell is here, but it is easier to handle. The other thing is the setting: rice paddies and coconut trees and hills and giant boulders and ruins of an old empire scattered throughout. I feel the past here. And maybe I also feel the slow rural South Indian pace of life here far from the city.

My expenses have dropped drastically since leaving Bangalore. In Bangalore my hotel was 680 rupees a night; in Mysore it dropped to 150 rupees; in Hampi it is 50 rupees (Bangalore, Hotel Ajantha: US$15.50; Mysore, Hotel Maurya: US$3.75; Hampi, Laughing Budha: US$1.10) . But the low prices will skyrocket as the winter season approaches. Travel costs in India vary tremendously depending on where you go and when you go and so are difficult to predict.

Blog entries since the last letter:

• Photos of Hampi ruins
• I could stay a while at Hampi - anyone could
• Hoysala architecture at Somanathpur Temple photos
• Mysore during Dasara photos
• Dasara Festival in Mysore
• Edward Hasbrouck analyzes The Amazing Race
• Lao Tzu has no fixed plans
• I can't do The Amazing Race
• Leaving a place

Peace,

Mark